Week 3 Discussion 1
Following the entry via RSS feeds which is how they found the edits.
The clip for this week’s discussion was about a French composer named, Maurice Jarre. We
followed a series of links with the audio that took us to different archived pages and showed
quotes that were added by a hoaxer. The hoaxer took it upon himself to create a quote and add
more quotes under the guise that they originated or belonged to Maurice Jarre. The quotes and
material were flagged, removed and eventually all the unsourced quotes were completely taken
down. The biggest problem came when the unsourced quote was used for Jarre’s published
obituary. It highlighted how far fake material was able to make it because of Wikipedia. The
audio points out one of the biggest problems with Wikipedia, the fact that it can be updated by
anyone. It’s public, can be updated by anyone and no proper citation or sourcing is needed to do
so. Items can be flagged, but sometimes it takes a long time for items to be flagged and removed
which means that misinformation spreads. Wikipedia should implement a system that checks for
validity and allows for accurate and credible sources to be used. I think the narrated audio is
more about the act of vandalism and problems with Wikipedia. The act of vandalism was geared
toward spreading misinformation and worked because of Wikipedia’s lack of checks and
balances.
